Emmy Award-Receiving Producer Shows Films at Utah State University

Helen Whitney, producer, director and writer for documentaries and feature films, screens her film The Mormons at the Performance Hall on the Utah State University campus at 7 p.m. Feb. 3. The screening is free and open to the public and will be followed by an open discussion.

 

Whitney has been involved in the film business since 1971. Her documentary work has appeared on ABC’s “Closeup” and PBS’s “American Masters,” as well as on FRONTLINE. She has received many awards for her work, including an Emmy and Peabody Award, an Oscar nomination, the Humanitas Award and the prestigious DuPont-Columbia Journalism Award.

 

In addition to showing her latest documentary, The Mormons, Wednesday, Feb. 3, Whitney will be interviewed for the radio program, “Access Utah” on Utah Public Radio station FM 89.5 or FM 91.5 from 9-10 a.m.

 

American Masters-Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light, a film about the photographer Richard Avedon, will be screened at 1 p.m. in the Fine Arts Visual Building, room 102, Feb. 2. A question and answer segment will follow.

 

Whitney will also show some of her other film work in the Department of Art Thursday, Feb 4. For more information on the times and location of this set of shows, contact the Art Department at 435-797-3460.

 

Whitney’s documentaries have covered a wide variety of subjects, including youth gangs, presidential candidates, the mentally ill, a Trappist Monastery, Pope John Paul II, the class structure of Great Britain, homosexuals and the photographer Richard Avedon.

 

Whitney is visiting Utah State University as part of Crossing Boundaries, a year-long project promoting unity and diversity across community. Crossing Boundaries, hosted by the Caine School of the Arts and the College of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences, is made possible with the support of the Obert C. and Grace Tanner Foundation, the Utah Arts Council and the Utah Humanities Council.

 

For more information, contact Scott Foster, exhibitions coordinator for the Department of Art, by email at scott.foster@usu.edu or by phone, 435-797-7373.

 

Writer: Courtney Lewis, Caine School of the Arts, 797-9203, courtney.lewis@usu.edu